Oh so close…

I am feeling very excited about Christmas day, and it is certainly fast approaching. It has been a good year I have to say. It has been much better than the last few, so I feel that is reason enough to celebrate. I have enjoyed some lovely time catching up with friends over the past few weeks and today did a lunch for two very dear friends of mine and their gorgeous baby boy.

I made chocolate mousse for dessert, one of my all time favourites.

  

I don’t think it was liked very much…

 

I have been wrapping pressies, writing in cards, cooking and cleaning today while listening to Mr Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble. God it has felt good.

 

Yummy spicy potato salad…

I wish you all a gorgeous Christmas day with your family and friends and look forward to 2011 and all the creativity that is awaiting.

Lights

I must be getting the Christmas vibe because this week I bought some solar lights to decorate my balcony. They are really sweet and I love the fact they are solar.

I also put up some lantern lights in my house, so coming up to Christmas I can enjoy lights around the place. I love lights, they are such a simple way to make you smile and feel good. 

I also finished off my texta doodling which I really enjoyed.

 

My Creative Space

I decided to pull out the knitting needles and start again on the blanket I am making for a hospital in Africa. The last one I did was three shades of blue which I loved, but I am excited to be doing different colours. I love the process of knitting and it is special knowing it will be going to such a good home. Check out what other people have been up to at Kootoyoo. 

Missing the South Coast

I recently went down the South Coast for a week and have been craving going back already. I love the South Coast. We started at Berry and tried a different cafe, ‘The Stuffed Olive,’ very cute and great coffee. 

 

We then drove further south to Bermagui which was to be our home for the next week. I thought I hadn’t been there before, but as soon as I saw the beach I remembered that when my family and I were travelling to Victoria years ago we stopped in Bermagui for a swim. It was an exciting feeling to think I was rediscovering this place as an adult.

The weather fluctuated from hot and sunny, to sometimes pretty cold, and it was surprisingly very very windy, but apparently that’s pretty normal. I loved Bermagui and the cute cafe and being so close to the gorgeous beaches. Each afternoon the sun seemed to pop through, no matter what the day had been liked, so we would take our books down to the beach and enjoy the rays of sun. 

My family have always had Boxer dogs so when I saw this little guy on the beach with his family, needless to say I was smitten. He was the cutest dog and so well behaved. He is going to be a big boy though, check out this paws!

We spent a day at Bega which was a bit disappointing, particularly the cheese factory which was very commercial, but we did find this little treasure in town and spend many hours flicking through magazines and drinking coffee. It was a really alternative, arty type cafe that would have been well suited in Newtown or Glebe, so I loved it.

I was so excited that it was cold enough to light the fire a few nights. Is there anything better than sitting in front of any open fire. Simple delights.

I loved this town and can’t wait to get back there.

My Creative Space- 1 hour painting

I love Thursdays. Knowing Thursday is ‘posting’ day I often ask myself ‘what have I been doing this week that is creative?’ Because most of my creative endeavours are writing based and not very visually exciting for a blog, I often search for another example of creativity. This week other than expressing my creativity by getting my home cleaner and more in shape, and spending countless hours making photo gifts for Christmas, there was nothing else to report. So I set myself a challenge- a painting in an hour.

I set my egg timer for 5 mins to sketch a vase of flowers in my dining room and then sat on my balcony and painted it. It was really fun and I find a time limit works well for me because I have to shut off my inner critic. It also made me realise that if it only takes an hour to dabble in some paint and pencils, then I should really set my egg timer and do it more often.

Hope you have all had a great week, check out what others are up to on Kootoyoo. 

My Creative Space: Beauty

This week I have focused on trying to clean out what is not necessary in my home and finding ways to bring more joy and beauty into my space. I love flowers and love them scattered around my place, so today I bought a gorgeous big bouquet and broke it up into a few vases. I also had some dried natives from a few weeks ago that had seen better days so I revived them in one of my favourite vases which uses a spike to secure the stems of the flowers. It is a really easy and fun way to play around and arrange flowers. Seems flowers and nature have featured strongly in my last few blog entries- I must be getting excited about summer getting closer.

It has also occurred to me this week that there are a lot of simple pleasures in life that can be easily overlooked. After having a gorgeous communal dinner with some friends over the weekend and enjoying some lush dates, my love of dates was re-ignited. Since the weekend I have found myself enjoying a cup of tea and dates on my balcony as the sun goes down. Life could be a lot worse I suspect!

I have started a ‘doodling’ project which I pick up every now and then. I remember doing this in high school art class and I loved the end result and the ‘mindless’ place your brain goes into as you make patterns and use colour. So easy and so relaxing.     

I hope you have all had a lovely week- how quickly they fly by. Check out what other people have been up to this week at Kootoyoo.

Creative Space- Garden Growing

With all the unexpected rain Sydney has been getting over the past week, my little garden is going very well indeed. These are a few pictures of my Mandevilla and miniature roses.

My Buddha isn’t bigger, but I think he is big enough! 

I hope you have all had a great week. Check out what other people are up to at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space- My Garden

This week my creative focus was on my balcony. As the weather gets warmer and summer is fast approaching I decided it would be a good idea to get my balcony as bright and colourful as I possible with some potted plants. During summer I spend a lot of time on my balcony reading, eating, drinking, and generally watching the world go by so I want it to be a really lovely space. This is the before shot;

This is the after shot;

And my all time favourite- orange and red floating lotus flowers made from fabric and foam. So cute. I love the contrast with the blue bird bath. 

It’s a work in progress but I have a few more ideas involving more colourful plants and some fairy lights, so I will wait and see how it evolves. If you are playing along this week, check out Kootoyoo. I hope you have had a great week. 

Sydney Night Noodle Market

Last night I went into Hyde Park to enjoy the Sydney Night Noodle Market as part of the Sydney Food Festival. First I went to the art gallery and did some writing in the cafe there. It was such a stunning time of the day, late afternoon, and the walk from the gallery to Hyde Park was such a pleasure with all the old beautiful trees.

I enjoyed the last bit of sun at the Hyde Park fountain and smiled a lot as I watched children running tirelessly after the birds, as partners met up after work, and tourists sat around with their backpacks.

 

I couldn’t help but be taken by the pure masculinity of this angle of a statue in the fountain. As for the identity of the beast/man he is slaying I am not so sure…

The Art and About Festival was on, displaying photography through the Hyde Park walkway which was really good.

As part of the festival, statues had been dressed up in flamboyant outfits. This was one I particularly liked with his crazy jacket and brightly coloured birds on his shoes.

The Night Noodle Market was a lot busier than I expected, with hundreds and hundreds of people milling around eating and having fun. I ended up eating some Thai satay skewers, fish cakes and curry puffs. The satay skewers were really nice. I was hoping there would be more smaller nibbly things to try but most of it was $12 Pad Thai, curries etc. so that was a bit of a shame.

All in all an enjoyable afternoon and night, weather was lovely and Sydney a pleasure as always.

A truly gorgeous day- My Creative Thinking Space

I was tired when I woke up but couldn’t resist the short drive to my local beach to enjoy the sun and a stunning morning tea at a cafe that sits right on the pavement overlooking the beach.

 

A latte was an obvious choice, which was served in a cute oversized egg cup. The last time I was at this cafe I had seen others eating fresh muffins which looked amazing, so I caved and ordered an orange and passionfruit muffin and it was mmmm mmm lovely!

I have a favourite rock at the beach that overlooks the water and it is the best place to let go of ‘life’ stuff, gain some perspective, and to enjoy the sun and the breeze. A great place to think over future plans and goals and get the creative juices flowing.

 

I hope you have all had a lovely week so far, and been able to get out into the sun and nature. Check out what others have been up to this week at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

I have a great book that teaches you how to draw and so I have given myself a challenge to try something out of the book at least once a week. I have also put a limit of 10 mins and I try to use the eraser minimally- all to re-train the perfectionist in me! Imperfections are oh so important…right. Well that is the message anyway. So this is a cute tree frog, maybe next week it will be a lizard or a snake…oh the possibilities. I am seriously hoping that I will begin to see improvements as the weeks go by- you can only hope. Happy creating this week. Check out Kootoyoo…